Stalin's great turn Flashcards
When was the great turn announced
fifteenth party congress in Dec 1927 - was a year plan
What was the great turn
Rapid industrialisation with high targets set for industry and the introduction of collectivisation into agriculture - the USSR needed an industrial base to produce more artillery as relations with powers such as Britain were declining.
Did the party support the great turn
Bolsheviks felt it encouraged private markets etc - peasants weren’t good socialists and thus couldn’t be relied upon to produce grain for the state
However the party did support rapid industrialisation
Why did Stalin introduce the great turn - To increase military strength
1920s and 30s Stalin feared the USSR would be attacked - needed more industry to prepare
Why did Stalin introduce the great turn - To achieve self-sufficiency
become less dependent on the west
Why did Stalin introduce the great turn - To increase grain supplies
wanted to end dated farming practices - didn’t want the state to be at mercy of the peasants as usually a bad harvest would damage the economy
Why did Stalin introduce the great turn - To move towards a socialist society
Marxism = socialism can only happen in a highly industrialised state where most of the population were workers - only about 20% of the USSR’s pop. at this time were workers = need more industry etc
Why did Stalin introduce the great turn - To establish his credentials
Stalin needed to prove that he was the successor of Lenin - The great turn would make him a leader of historic importance
Why did Stalin introduce the great turn - To improve standards of living
Wanted to catch up with the west - industrialisation created wealth for society
Collectivisation - What
types of farm s=
1 - Toz = peasants owned land but shared machinery - common before 1930
2 - Sovkhoz = owned and run by the state - peasants paid regular wage like factory workers
3 - Kolkhoz = land run be an elected committee - up to 300 households put together - each household gets a small plot of private land - favoured in the 1930s
Collectivisation - Why
- more land farmed more efficiently = much higher food production
- mechanisation - machine tractor stations (MTS) = less peasants needed to work the land
- allowed for socialist state to be created as peasants couldn’t sell grain to private merchants
- Stalin was struggling to get grain of the Kulaks
Collectivisation - How
Force, terror and propaganda
- Stalin used class enemy = Kulak in an attempt to scare poorer peasants into joining the collectivised farms - didn’t work
- 25,000 urban party activists tasked with revolutionising the countryside
- Decree on 1st Feb 1930 = local party organisations have the power to use necessary measures against the Kulak as part of the Dekulakisation
Collectivisation -impact
- party claimed that by Feb 1930, 50% of all peasant households had been collectivised - reality = disaster - 30% of all livestock killed etc
- Stalin stated in Pravda that the local officials were ‘dizzy with success’ - ended collectivisation until 1931 when it was reintroduced
- grain requisitioning led to the famine of 1932-34
Collectivisation case study - Smolensk - what happened to the peasants
Kulaks forced to pay higher taxes etc - were prosecuted for grain concealment
- Kulaks dekulakising themselves by selling possessions etc
- Kulaks blackmailed to take their names of the deportation lists
- over 90% of peasant households in Kolkhozes by the end of the 1930s
Collectivisation case study - Smolensk - Peasant resistance
- poorer peasants sided with the Kulaks - hid grain and attacked activists
- 200 peasants attacked a Kolkhoz with many of the attackers being women - OGPU noted that women had heavy involvement in the resistance
How was collectivisation carried out - Inducements
modern machinery persuaded peasants to go to collectivised farms
How was collectivisation carried out - Threats
peasants threatened with arrest or forced labour
How was collectivisation carried out - Propaganda
party activists claimed collectivisation was voluntary - persuaded peasants that they were transforming the countryside for the better
How was collectivisation carried out - OGPU
forced peasants into collectivised farms through the use of force - ‘I should surround villages with machine guns and order my men to fire indiscriminately into the crowds of peasants.’
Stalin’s wife’s view
told by students about the famine in the countryside - believed Stalin was mad - died in November 1932 - suicide - Stalin stated ‘she died my enemy
Results of collectivisation
- peasants forced to make soup out of dandelions and nettles
- peasants tortured by requisitioning squads
- to talk of famine = offense and = 3-5yrs in the Gulag
- Gulag pop. rose from 30,000 to 2 million in 3 years
- Stalin signed 3000 death warrants each day
Collectivisation economically successful
- collected 22.8 million tonnes of grain by 1931 = financed industrialisation - 1.7 million tonnes were exported in 1932
Collectivisation economically failure
- Grain production didn’t surpass pre-collectivisation levels until after 1935
- Harvests dropped dramatically in the 1930s
- mass loss of livestock as peasants killed them
- peasant’s had nothing to work for so didn’t work very hard = passive resistance
Collectivisation politically successful
- sevenths - eights law = 10 years sentence for stealing anything owned by the state
- economy was now not controlled by peasants - party now had more control over the countryside
- internal passports stopped peasants from fleeing the farms
The human cost of Collectivisation
- 1932 famine in Ukraine = 7 million deaths over 2 yrs with 5million of these being in Ukraine
- Internal passports meant peasants couldn’t leave famine ridden areas
- 10 million peasants disposed of between 1929 and 1932
- THE FAMINE WAS MAN-MADE
Industrialisation - Why
Economic
- a way to achieve socialism and protect the country from attacks
- 1937 = USSR virtually self-sufficient
- urgent armaments needed to get ready for WW2
- Stalin believed the USSR was 100 years behind the West and wanted to close this gap in the next 10yrs
Political
- for Stalin to solidify his power
Ideological
- creating a new society which would be superior compared to their capitalist neighbours
Industrialisation - How
- the reintroduction of the Tsarist internal passport system
- industrial targets for output set - failure to meet these targets = a criminal offence
- four major industrial commissars including one for heavy industry
Who set the targets for the 5year plans
state decided what and when something was to be produced by
Vesenkha
head = Rykov
- supreme economic council - agreed with Stalin that the majority of investment needed to go into coal, iron and steel production
other organisations involved?
foreign companies sent engineers and skilled workers to help build new factories and exploit the new resources
Role of the Gosplan
- state planning commission - set up in 1921 to work out inputs each industry would need to meet the targets set for them
Role of a manager or director
sole responsibility for meeting output targets
1st 5 Year plan
October 1928 - December 1932
Aims = Heavy industry accounted for 80% of the investment
Successes =
- Electricity production tripled and coal and iron output doubled
- huge new tractor works were built to meet the needs of mechanised agriculture
Failures
- decline in consumer industries e.g. food processing due to drive against Nepmen
- lack of skilled workers
Other Info = climate of fear as Gosplan and the Vesenkha up bid each other, setting higher targets for industry’s etc
2nd 5 Year plan
January 1933 to December 1937
Aims of plan = Heavy industry still priority but also greater emphasis on communications e.g. rail links etc.
Successes
- Heavy industry benefitting from successes of the first plan such as increased electricity production
- By 1937 the USSR was virtually self - sufficient in metal- working
- Rationing abolished
- defence output increased by 300%
Failures
- Consumer goods industries still lagging
other info
- targets for industrial output were scaled back
- Gulag labour made up 10% of the workforce
3rd 5 Year plan
January 1938 to June 1941
- need for armaments became increasingly urgent
Successes
- Heavy industry continued to grow
- Defence and armaments grew rapidly
Failures
- Steel output grew insignificantly
- oil production failed to meet targets which led to a fuel crisis
- shortage of skilled labour
Other info
- exceptionally harsh winter in 1938 slowed the initial progress of the plan
Magnitogorsk
- Americans moved to the city during the great depression in hope of finding work
- the area lacked roads and sewage pipes - a lack of fuel for fires meant many died due to the cold
- most of the workers were peasants
- could be shot for stealing timber etc
- room in every barrack called the ‘red barrack’ which spread propaganda
- if you made mistakes you were seen as a sabotage
White sea Baltic canal
Background
- constructed between 1930-1933 - shortens journey from St Petersburg by 2500 miles
Successes
- the speed the soviets completed the project was well sought of at the time by other nations
- led to the development of many towns and cities along it’s banks
Failures
- over 25,000 Gulag prisoners died during the construction
- The canal was too shallow to have large ships use it = couldn’t be used to transport aval vessels which had been originally planned
Moscow metro
first opened in May 1935
Successes
- Stalin saw it as a showcase of socialism being one of the biggest and busiest subways in the world
- Known for beauty with each station being decorated - socialist realism = form of propaganda to motivate the population
Failures
- most of the British engineers that helped with it’s construction were deported after a show trial
Dnieprostori dam
- Completed in October 1932 - provides 80% of Ukraine’s water resources
Successes - Destroyed to reduce the access of resources for the Nazis when they invaded - showed the Soviets will to resist
- Rebuilt in 1950 and is still in operation today
Failures - cost $110 million to build initially
- destruction of the dam killed up to 100,000 - led to hatred from Ukrainians towards the USSR - Ukrainians allowed the Nazis in willingly
Magnitogorsk - what and when
gigantic steel plant - construction completed in 1935
Magnitogorsk - what happened to raw materials here
firms requested more than they needed - hoarded materials - quality very poor also
Magnitogorsk - Who worked there
typically ex-peasant with almost half of the workers being under the age of 24
By 1932 75% were there on there own free will
Magnitogorsk - Ural river dam
built to supply the steel factory with water - the dam was built in just 74 days - although poorly constructed = chronic shortage of water
Magnitogorsk -who was VP Ogorodnikov
- name features 4 times in a list of 8 record-breaking shifts in Magnitogorsk - rewarded with a motorcycle and a house and became a household name
Magnitogorsk - living standards
- only 15% lived in permanent housing with 25% living in mud huts
Foreign help during the five year plans
- companies sent specialist’s and skilled workers etc to build new factories etc
-Henry ford helped the Russians develop a car industry - the Great depression in America forced many Americans to go to the USSR in search for jobs
Stakhanovite movement
30th August 1935 - workers extracted 102 tonnes of coal in one shift - received large pay bonus, an apartment and a holiday etc
who came up with the Stakhanovite movement
Konstain petrov- party organiser who’s area had fallen behind it’s quota
Stakhanovite movement spreading across the USSR
several other miners demanded the chance to beat the record - Stalin called for Stakhanovism to be spread ‘widely and deeply’ across the Soviet Union
Stakhanovite movement propaganda value
Ordozkidze called him the ‘soviet Hercules.’
Living and working conditions in the five year plans - Men: peasants
- half of the labour force at the end of the first five year plan were peasants
- very high labour turnover - 1930 = workers changed jobs 3 times a year - peasants found it difficult to adapt to factory work
Living and working conditions in the five year plans - Men: Skilled workers
- rare so factories wanted to attract them - offered high wages etc
- less than 7% of the workforce were skilled
Living and working conditions in the five year plans - Managers
- not meeting targets = wreckers - under lot’s of pressure from the government and the workers
- desperate to keep skilled workers
- ‘it’s necessary not too work well but to account well.’
Living and working conditions in the five year plans - Women
-10 million entered the workforce - dominated professions such as teaching and medicine - generally paid less
- Petrograd women made up 44% of the workforce
Living and working conditions in the five year plans - Tough measure
- wage differentials = reward skilled workers etc
- Tough measures in 1930-1933 to deal with absenteeism - included dismissal, etc
-1938 = labour books and internal passports issued - difficult to survive without a labour book
Living and working conditions in the five year plans - Forced labour
- peasants forced into industrial work by collectivisation - high rates of absenteeism
- after April 1930, all criminals sentenced to over 3 yrs were sent to a labour camp = provided cheap labour
Strengths of the economy by 1941
- Become highly industrialised nation - By 1940 the USSR had overtaken Britain in in Iron and Steel production
- nine aircraft factories constructed in 1939 - also producing 100,000 rifles per month
- Stalin had come closer to achieving true socialism
Weaknesses of the economy by 1941
- Soviet claims and statistics were often exaggerated
- 3rd 5 year plan was left incomplete and was still producing less grain than under the NEP
